TV-14Season 1
Synopsis
Auschwitz: The Nazis and the Final Solution (2005), Season 1 — watch online on iFILM. Six documentary episodes from the BBC trace how a camp near Kraków became the centre of the Nazi extermination programme.
The season is built around decisions rather than shock. It opens in the summer of 1941, when the invasion of the Soviet Union pushed violence against the regime's "enemies" to a new scale. From there the series follows the bureaucracy of murder: the shaping of the Final Solution by 1942, the rebuilding of Auschwitz and Treblinka for mass killing, and the SS officers who grew rich on property stolen from prisoners. By 1944, Eichmann's deportation of Hungary's Jews drives the deadliest stretch in the camp's history, and the closing episodes reach the liberation of 1945 and the question of what came after.
Laurence Rees grounds every claim in survivor testimony, statements from former guards and archival records, keeping the dramatised reconstructions restrained. It is a hard watch, but a clear-eyed account of how ordinary people assembled a machinery of death step by step. Stream Auschwitz Season 1 online on iFILM.
6 episodes
S1·E1Surprising Beginnings
This episode sets the stage for the series and examines the radical increase in violence against all opponents of the Nazi state. In particular, it explores the German army's invasion of the Soviet Union during the summer of 1941 and connects this campaign to the first gassing experiments in Auschwitz, Poland, which were aimed at Russian prisoners of war, not Jews.
S1·E2Orders and Initiatives
Laurence Rees continues his documentary history, marking the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, with an account of how the Nazis developed their ""Final Solution"". By 1942, Rudolf Hess had established the camp as a place to murder thousands of Jews, Slavs, Roma Gypsies.
S1·E3Factories of Death
The Nazis' marshalling of Jews from across Europe - including the Channel Islands- gained momentum in 1942. Unable to cope with the huge influx, Auschwitz and Treblinka were modified with bigger gas chambers and crematoria. But inspirational stories of courage and compassion could still be found among this appalling catalogue of inhumanity, including that of German officer Albert Battel, who risked his life to save detainees.
S1·E4Corruption
By 1943, life was good for many of the SS. Eyewitness accounts recall how those in power at Auschwitz lined their pockets with wealth stolen from Jewish inmates while also engaging in illicit affairs.
S1·E5Frenzied Killing
SS Lieutenant Colonel Adolf Eichmann ordered the deportation of Hungary's Jews following occupation in 1944, precipitating the most intensive period of slaughter in Aushwitz's history. The Allies, meanwhile, faced dilemmas: should they divert valuable resources to bomb transport routes to the camp? And should they consider Eichmann's offer of one million Jewish lives in exchange for certain provisions - the ""Blood for Goods"" deal?
S1·E6Liberation and Revenge
The reality of life in the concentration camps was revealed upon the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau and Bergen-Belsen in 1945. But what was the fate of the remaining prisoners and the SS garrisons? The final days of the war and its immediate aftermath is a story as shocking as it is surprising, with Jewish survivors facing appalling treatment in their home countries and large numbers of SS perpetrators remaining hidden.
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